Highland Council planners fail to hit targets
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
THE Highland Council is failing to hit its targets in dealing with planning applications.
Audit Scotland has released figures indicating most councils across the country are not meeting specific times while dealing with submissions. They have been published as part of a report which assessed whether recent reform of the planning system is making it more economic, efficient and effective.
The report found the time local authorities take to decide on the outcome of applications has not reduced and there is a widening gap between the cost of processing applications and the income councils receive from fees.
Between 2006 and 2009, the Highland Council received 12,814 applications.
Audit Scotland set councils the task of turning around 90 per cent of household applications and 80 per cent of local applications within two months.
Figures show within the three-year period, the Highland Council achieved only 77.9 per cent of household applications and 55.7 of local applications in the set time period.
It also failed to meet its target in processing 80 per cent of major development applications within four months – achieving only 38 per cent.
Head of planning and building standards Malcolm MacLeod said the figures showed more needed to be done to improve the situation.
“The Highland Council take planning application performance seriously.We have particular challenges in this area because of the geography of where we are located. We have a high number of non-householder applications compared to other authorities because we are mostly a rural area,” he said.
“We’ve seen some improvement in recent times and even since the figures the report was based on were released we have improved with our major development percentage currently standing at 55 per cent.
“We brought out a new improvement plan to the planning and environment committee last month. It sets out a number of actions which will help improve our performance.”
Priorities for next year included improving performance as a main priority, he added.
“We’ve also set out our priorities for next year which includes improving our performance being one of our main priorities. Hopefully, when the next report is issued, we will be one of the top-performing authorities in the country.”
The results for the Highland Council show its performance is average when compared with the rest of the country.
The best-performing council was Argyll and Bute which achieved over 90 per cent for householders and local applications within two months.
Shetland Islands Council was the worst-performing authority, achieving less than 40 per cent for applications within two months, while Moray recorded just 18 per cent of major applications within four months.
John Baillie, chair of the Accounts Commission, saidthe planning system played a key role in sustaining and growing the economy.: “The time taken to decide planning applications is not reducing and the gap between income and expenditure is wideningand becoming increasingly unsustainable. Councils lack detailed information on the costs of handling planning applications. Understanding these costs and why they have increased is a necessary first step in identifying where efficiencies can be made. Councils need to make progress on this as a matter of urgency.”
The number of planning applications across Scotland has fallen by 29 per cent over the past six years, with income from fees also dropping.
However, expenditure on processing planning applications has risen by 17 per cent from £6.7 million to £20.8m.
